Printing and programming a self-balancer

The Hackaday staff isn’t in agreement on 3d printers. Some of us are very enthusiastic, some are indifferent, and some wonder what if they’re as widely useful as the hype makes them sound. But we think [Jason Dorweiler’s] self balancing robot is as strong a case as any that 3d printing should be for everyone!

Don’t get us wrong. We love the robot project just for being a cool self-balancer. Seeing the thing stand on its own (video after the break) using an Arduino with accelerometer and gyroscope sensors is pure win. But whenever we see these we always think of all the mechanical fabrication that goes into it. But look at the thing. It’s just printed parts and some wooden dowels! How easy is that?

Sure, sure, you’ve got to have access to the printer, it needs to be well calibrated, and then you’ve got to make the designs to be printed out. But these hurdles are getting easier to overcome every day. After all, there’s no shortage of people to befriend who want nothing more than to show off their Makerbot/RepRap/etc.

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2 thoughts on “Printing and programming a self-balancer”

I don’t see anything there that couldn’t have been done with junk from the junkbox. Certainly nothing I’d bother spending effort on to print. A few plywood scraps and a couple of wheels would have done the job for an equivalent level of ‘finishedness’

Maybee you are right but if one have decided to do a balancing robot and dont find finished parts in junkbin i would certainly print the parts if i could.
If one have the luck of owning a 3D printer i use it for as much parts that i could.

About balancing robots, i still think they are cool and to make one balace very good is a challenge.